Shakesville

President Obama on His Presidency and Racial Justice: "We Plant Seeds"

During a press conference in Poland over the weekend, President Obama was asked to address what he imagined his legacy would be on racial justice. He said he will leave that to the historians, but answered by saying what he has tried to do.

POTUS: The legacy of slavey and Jim Crow and discrimination didn't vanish with the election of Barack Obama https://t.co/oGYj6vbhlI
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) July 9, 2016

I do want to leave legacy questions to the history books, but what I can do—maybe this is a fair response to your question—is to say how I've tried to lead the country on this issue.

More than anything, what I hope is that my voice has tried to get all of us, as Americans, to understand the difficult legacy of race; to encourage people to listen to each other; to recognize that the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination didn't suddenly vanish with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, or the Voting Rights Act, or the election of Barack Obama; that things have gotten better, substantially better, but that we've still got a lot more work to do.

And that, as was the case with the police task force, that we set up, that I've tried to encourage people to come up with practical, concrete solutions that can reduce, if not eliminate, the problems of racial bias.

And if—if my voice has been true, and positive, then my hope would be that it may not fix everything right away, but it surfaces problems; it frames them; it allows us to wrestle with these issues, and try to come up with practical solutions, and that that perspective may lead to continued improvement, so that not just Malia and Sasha, but their children, can experience a country that is more just and more united and more equal.

And that's not gonna happen right away. And that's okay. You know, we plant seeds, and somebody else maybe sits under the shade of the tree that we planted.

And I—I'd like to think that, as best as I could, I have been true in speaking about these issues.

As I said at BNR: "It is, of course, one of the bitterest circumstances of President Obama's presidency that systemic and relentlessly expressed racism has created enormous difficulties for him in being able to speak as frankly and passionately about racial injustice as he certainly would have liked. But he has planted seeds. In the shade of whose emergent trees others will sit one day."

image of a teaspoon with a baby tree growing out of a bit of dirt sitting in the hollow of the spoon

On This Weekend's #BlackLivesMatter Protests

[Content Note: Images of police aggression against Black Lives Matter protesters.]

Across the country, Black Lives Matter protests were met with resistance from police, in many cases wearing riot gear. Some protesters were again met with concussion grenades and teargas. There were a number of arrests, including BLM activist Deray McKesson, who was arrested in Baton Rouge on his birthday and held for 17 hours, during which the charging document was released containing information disputed by McKesson and other protesters.

There is a lot to discuss. Below, some tweeting and retweeting I did over the weekend.

Evergreen Brian Nguyen image from Berkeley Eric Garner protest. pic.twitter.com/HMng666tUV
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 10, 2016

[Image embedded in tweet shows a man of color holding up a mirror, pointed at police, on which is written: "Want to see who came to riot | Look for who dressed for a riot."]

I don't want police to be harmed. I also don't want concussion grenades and tear gas used on protesters.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 10, 2016

You know who else doesn't want cops in riot gear at protests? The cops I know who do sensitivity and de-escalation training.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 10, 2016

Smoke bombs from St. Paul police didn't disperse #blacklivesmatter protesters @StarTribune pic.twitter.com/q3lxgm22A4
— Glen Stubbe (@gspphoto) July 10, 2016

[Image embedded in tweet shows the scene on a street at night: A line of police in riot gear stand down the block from plumes of smoke, engulfing protesters.]

Last #blacklivesmatter protesters removed w pepper spray,flash bangs. All Heading governors residence @StarTribune pic.twitter.com/CQ90N5yZTX
— Glen Stubbe (@gspphoto) July 10, 2016

[Image embedded in tweet shows the scene on a street at night: A group of police in riot gear, holding batons.]

What a powerful photo pic.twitter.com/PzGfk45KPy
— Nader (@BonsaiSky) July 10, 2016

[Image embedded in tweet shows a young, thin, Black woman in a sundress standing in the middle of a street, tall and fixed, while police in full militarized riot gear run toward her.]

This image, man. Multitudes. https://t.co/5axCpuschy pic.twitter.com/ggCZCpPhmz
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) July 10, 2016

[Image embedded in tweet shows Deray McKesson, a young, thin, Black man wearing a t-shirt reading "Stay Woke" on one knee, staring evenly into the camera as he is surrounded by police who are cuffing and arresting him.]

As I was in the cell over the past 17 hours, I thought of the quote that simply says if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 10, 2016

Much of the action taken against protesters is justified on the basis that they are blocking roads. Which, of course, again raises the question of who owns the streets and who gets to decide their best purpose.

On Saturday afternoon, Iain and I went to a soccer match with about 18,000 other people. Afterwards, we sat in traffic around the stadium for about an hour, before we could even begin the short drive home. It was irritating, but everyone who attends sporting events (or concerts, or various other stadium events) expects as much.

Police guided the traffic. Certain residential streets were cordoned off, which I imagine doesn't thrill the people who live on them.

We came home, and we watched images of protesters being "dispersed" by police in riot gear, because those protesters were (allegedly) blocking streets. I said to Iain: We just sat in traffic for an hour for a soccer match. Streets were blocked to direct the traffic and accommodate the influx of attendees.

What are our fucking priorities when it's okay to inconvenience other drivers in an area and shut down streets for sports fans, but not okay to do it for people who are protesting issues of life and death?

How many of the white people who were among those willing to sit in that traffic for an hour after a sporting event would not be willing to be inconvenienced by Black protesters asking them, pleading with them, to value their lives?

Open Thread

image of a bouquet of flowers

Hosted by a bouquet.

The Virtual Pub Is Open

image of a pub Photoshopped to be named 'The Shakesville Arms'

[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]

TFIF, Shakers!

Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

[Content Note: There is a strobe light effect in this video.]

Pet Shop Boys: "It's a Sin"

Daily Dose of Cute

image of Zelda the Black and Tan Mutt looking dubious while Sophie the Torbie Cat lies on the floor looking up at her plaintively

Zelly is dubious about Sophie's attempts to groom her.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

Shaker Gardens Thread: July Edition

July pink zinnia photo julyzinnia_zpsljq3q2v2.jpg

Howdy Shakers! How is your garden looking these days? I figured we could all stand to look at some pretty flowers, tasty veggies, and gross insect eggs...wait, WHAT? Anyway, here are some pictures from my garden!

First let me share some veggie pictures. This is a blossom from a purple pole bean I am growing. I will be honest; neither I nor my partner really love the taste of the beans. But the flowers are really pretty! they look nice all over the vines.

Julybeans photo julybeans_zpsnfpwhqmm.jpg

On to the nightshades! I'm growing some white eggplant this year as well as little mini eggplants. These are ripe at about 2 inches, and are super-productive.

july eggplant bebe photo julyeggplant_zpsxgvhp85c.jpg

Here's some of the baby eggplant, basil, and a zucchini waiting to be turned into a tasty casserole....nom!

julyzukeggbasil photo julydinner_zps3arxtcdn.jpg

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Terrorism; bombing; death] "Islamic State claimed responsibility for a triple suicide attack on Thursday evening near a Shia mausoleum north of Baghdad that killed at least 35 people and wounded 60 others, according to Iraqi security sources. The attack on the mausoleum of Sayyid Muhammad bin Ali al-Hadi reignited fears of an escalation of the sectarian strife between Iraq's Shias and Sunnis. ...The strike in Balad is being seen in Baghdad as another indication that after losing much of the territory it has held for the past two years, Isis is once again trying to inflame tensions by attacking soft civilian targets and holy sites." Fucking hell.

[CN: Racism; emotional auditing] This is a must-read: "Stop Condemning My Bitterness, Start Condemning the System: My anger is functional. My bitterness is rational. If I am not outraged at the injustices faced by myself, my community, my children, who will be?"

The State Department, which suspended its investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails while the FBI complete its investigation, has now resumed its investigation, and the FBI may now launch another investigation following Republican lawmakers' announcement that they intend to request the FBI investigate whether Clinton lied to the committee during their invesigation. So, everything's normal with our government.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton continues to run to be the leader of a government intent on making it clear she's better than we deserve, and has a shortlist of veep candidates that reportedly includes: Sen. Tim Kaine, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. Please, Maude, anyone but Tim Kaine.

Newt Gingrich, who is being vetted by Donald Trump for his veep, because no one else wants the job, says of Trump: "I think he is a remarkable figure." I guess? That's not exactly a clear compliment.

And in other supercool election news: "Bernie Sanders has been invited to continue his underdog bid for the White House by the Green party's probable presidential candidate, who has offered to step aside to let him run. Jill Stein, who is expected to be endorsed at the party's August convention in Houston, told Guardian US that 'overwhelming' numbers of Sanders supporters are flocking to the Greens rather than Hillary Clinton." Doubtful.

[CN: War on agency] Go read this terrific piece by Pam Merritt (aka Shark Fu): "Missourians have had enough. That's what brought local progressive activists together, led by Reproaction Missouri organizer Zoe Krause, to launch Show-Me Accountability. We gathered on the sidewalk in front of Thrive, one of at least 65 CPCs anti-choice lawmakers champion despite the fact that the centers have a history of lying to patients seeking reproductive health care. Missouri lawmakers have even pushed legislation to guarantee CPCs aren't subject to regulation or oversight. We chose Thrive as the location of our launch to illustrate the contrast between what Missouri politicians fund, prioritize, and protect, versus what Missourians actually need them to focus on. Someone turned the sprinklers on at Thrive just as activists started showing up, providing a nonstop shower that drenched people walking or standing on much of the sidewalk in front of the building. It was an old-school disruption move that made it clear they knew we were coming and weren't happy about it. We shifted down the sidewalk and started to get in formation."

Good news: "A year after the U.S. Supreme Court's marriage equality decision, state courts are still sorting out the implications for same-sex couples when it comes to disputes over children. The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, ruled Thursday that a non-adoptive same-sex partner is still entitled to legal recognition in a custody dispute. ...Maryland isn't the only state still figuring out how to sort out the legal recognition of same-sex parents. Just last week, a federal judge ordered Indiana to list both parents in a same-sex couple on their child's birth certificate, following a similar ruling against Utah last year."

"A ban on women serving in close combat units in the British military has been lifted by Prime Minister David Cameron. Women, who have previously served on the front line in support roles, will now be allowed to enter the cavalry, infantry, and armoured corps. ...The PM's decision follows a government review in which the head of the Army, General Sir Nick Carter, recommended the ban should be lifted. Announcing the move at a Nato summit in Warsaw, Poland, Mr Cameron said: 'It is vital that our armed forces are world-class and reflect the society we live in. It will ensure the armed forces can make the most of all their talent and increase opportunities for women to serve in the full range of roles."

Whoa: "Scientists have designed a robotic stingray that could help our understanding of the human heart. The miniature robot, one-tenth the scale of the actual fish, moves using heart cells taken from a rat. Researchers hope the robotic ray will give new insight into the heart's ability to pump blood and its potential implications in heart disease."

Stunningly beautiful: "A detailed image of the core of the famous Crab Nebula, captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals the 'beating heart' that, with every pulse, breathes life into the expanding cloud of gas and debris surrounding it."

And finally! "Photographer Captures the Fun Side of Ground Squirrels." TOO CUTE.

Well La-Dee-Da Look Who's Joined the Party

(Pun intended.)

Bernie Sanders finally says that not only will he "do everything" to defeat Donald Trump, but to elect Hillary Clinton:

"We have got to do everything that we can to defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton," the Vermont senator said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg's Albert R. Hunt for PBS's "Charlie Rose" program. "I don't honestly know how we would survive four years of a Donald Trump" as president.

The endorsement, which may come as soon as next week, would provide a long-awaited unity moment for party members frustrated by Sanders' lingering campaign. Sanders has spent the weeks since Clinton clinched the nomination in early June working to influence the party's governing agenda.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the timing of this means that Senator Principles has not, in fact, been holding out to influence the Democratic agenda he already damn well knows is strongly in alignment with his own, but because he was waiting to see if Hillary Clinton would be indicted over her emails.

Leaving him as the Democratic Party's de facto nominee.

I realize Sanders isn't much for taking advice, but maybe he should take some all the same from our President:

#HillaryClinton #POTUS #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/0TFS3ZT7eM
— BNR (@BlueNationRev) July 6, 2016

[Tweet includes image of President Obama campaigning with Hillary Clinton; they are clasping hands over their heads. Text on the graphic, attributed to the President, reads: "My faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded."]

Angry

[Content Note: Guns; mass shooting; eliminationist imagery.]

Peter Daou: "In Wake of Horrific Massacre of Dallas Cops, Fox News Attacks Obama." If even the mass shooting of police officers doesn't mean we can have a conversation about gun reform, I don't even fucking know.

Meanwhile, here's me on what the NRA, the organization most responsible for why we can't have that conversation, is getting up to at the moment: "Pro-Donald NRA Ad Appears to Incite Violence Against Hillary."

I'm just so angry. I'm angry about state sanctioned violence against Black men and women; I'm angry about mass violence committed with assault weapons against private citizens and against police.

I'm angry about the number of guns in this country and how they are used. I'm angry about the militarization of police forces, and I'm angry about the militarization of a citizenry who has access to assault weapons, and I'm angry that we only ever talk about the first half of that equation, because the second is just as important.

I'm angry that we can't even have an honest goddamn conversation about any of this.

What Is Trump Even Doing?

[Content Note: Bigotry.]

I've got a new piece up at BNR about how genuinely weird Donald Trump's campaign is becoming with each passing day:

In an interview with the New York Times, Donald refused to rule out quitting if he won the election:

Presented in a recent interview with a scenario, floating around the political ether, in which the presumptive Republican nominee proves all the naysayers wrong, beats Hillary Clinton and wins the presidency, only to forgo the office as the ultimate walk-off winner, Mr. Trump flashed a mischievous smile. "I'll let you know how I feel about it after it happens," he said, minutes before leaving his Trump Tower office to fly to a campaign rally in New Hampshire.
The Times generously attributes this to Donald being "not a traditional candidate for president."

I am not inclined to be so generous. This is not the response of a serious candidate who is treating the United States presidency with the gravity it deserves — and requires.

Donald's candidacy is like a grotesque clown show comprised of incoherent disgorgements of bigotry, empty braggadocio, and garbled nonsense masquerading as policy proposals. He started his campaign as a punchline, unfathomably capturing his party's nomination, and has since descended into a spiral of inexplicably strange behavior.

There's more at the link, including a supercool video of Trump screaming about how he hates mosquitoes and comparing Clinton to a mosquito. Yeah.

On Dallas

[Content Note: Mass shooting; guns; death.]

Last night in Dallas, during what had been a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest, an unknown number of shooters (but as many as four) which are thought to have assumed triangulated and elevated positions, opened fire with what are believed to be assault rifles. The details of the attack, including who the shooters are and why they made the attack, are still emerging. One of the suspects is reportedly dead, following a standoff after he cornered himself in a parking garage.

What we do know for sure is that 11 police officers were shot, and five of them have died. Four were Dallas police officers and one was a DART officer. We are still waiting for the identities of the victims to be disclosed.

My sincerest condolences to their families, friends, fellow officers, and community.

One civilian was also shot in the leg, and is undergoing surgery.

This is just unfathomable. I am really angry and really sad and really troubled. It's so upsetting that a peaceful protest, during which protesters and police were taking pictures with each other, was utterly shattered by this heinous violence.

There is a lot more I want to say, but I don't want to speculate. I'm sure there will be more to say once further details are available. At the moment, I will just share some news articles detailing what is known so far.

As always, let's keep this an image-free thread. Thanks.

New York Times: 5 Dallas Police Officers Killed by Snipers at Protest.

Dallas Morning News: 5 Officers Slain, 7 Wounded, 1 Suspect Dead After Shooting at Dallas Rally.

Guardian: Live Updates.

UPDATE 1: The Dallas police chief is now saying there was only one gunman, who acted alone, and he was killed when police used a robot to detonate a bomb that was apparently in the possession or proximity of the suspect.

UPDATE 2: Also per Dallas Police Chief David Brown: "The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter. He said he was upset about the recent shootings, he was upset at white people. The suspect said he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. The suspect said that he was not affiliated with any groups and he stated that he did this alone." No identifying information about the gunman has been released.

UPDATE 3: The gunman has been identified as a 25-year-old Black man named Micah Xavier Johnson from Mesquite, Texas.

UPDATE 4: Mark Hughes, the Black man who was identified as a "person of interest" last night, and whose picture was widely circulated by police and the media, and who had nothing to do with the shooting, is now receiving death threats. I have to tell you: When I saw his picture last night, my first instinct was that it was the NY Post's "Bag Men" cover all over again. And so it was. I desperately hope that Hughes will be safe, and that he will receive the apology he deserves, as publicly as his picture was distributed.

Open Thread

image of a cougar

Hosted by a cougar. [Photo: Bas Lammers.]

Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker kathleen_w: "What is your favorite texture?"

I love me some corduroy.

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

10,000 Maniacs: "Because the Night"

(I love their cover of this song.)

Throwback Thursdays

image of my feet in the grass, in mismatched shoes

Early 2012. That time I was out walking the dogs and noticed midway through our walk that I was wearing two different shoes, lol.

[Please share your own throwback pix in comments. Just make sure the pix are just of you and/or you have consent to post from other living people in the pic. And please note that they don't have to be pictures from childhood, especially since childhood pix might be difficult for people who come from abusive backgrounds or have transitioned or lots of other reasons. It can be a picture from last week, if that's what works for you. And of course no one should feel obliged to share a picture at all! Only if it's fun!]

An Observation

The entertainment industry routinely insists that projects with women and/or projects with older women don't sell.

Sure, okay.

So tell me why half the country is still obsessed with The Golden Girls 25 years after it ended.

Daily Dose of Cute

image of Matilda the Fuzzy Sealpoint Cat napping on the couch, just a pile of exploding fuzz

She's such a ragamuffin, lol! There is a reason Iain calls her "Rags."
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Transphobia; carcerality; self-harm] Goddammit: "Chelsea Manning, the U.S. soldier sentenced to 35 years in prison for her role in the publication of a vast trove of classified information by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, was hospitalized early Tuesday after what media reports characterized as a suicide attempt. Manning, 28, was taken to the hospital and has since been returned to confinement, said Wayne Hall, an Army spokesman. ...Manning's lead attorney, Nancy Hollander, said in a statement that she was 'shocked and outraged' that an official at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where Manning is imprisoned, provided 'confidential medical information' about Manning to the media but had not shared anything with her team. 'Despite the fact that they have reached out to the media, and that any other prison will connect an emergency call, the Army has told her lawyers that the earliest time that they will accommodate a call between her lawyers and Chelsea is Friday morning,' Hollander said. 'We call on the Army to immediately connect Chelsea Manning to her lawyers and friends who care deeply about her well-being and are profoundly distressed by the complete lack of official communication about Chelsea's current situation.' Army officials at Fort Leavenworth referred questions to the Pentagon." I am so angry about this, for a dozen different reasons. And I take up space in solidarity with Chelsea Manning, who doesn't deserve to be treated this way, even while incarcerated and irrespective of one's feelings about whether she should be.

[CN: Police brutality; racism; guns; death] "The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation on Wednesday into the fatal shooting of a black man by the Baton Rouge, La., police after a searing video of the encounter, aired repeatedly on television and social media, reignited contentious issues surrounding police killings of African-Americans. ...The decision to have the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the F.B.I. and the United States attorney's office in Baton Rouge conduct the investigation was welcomed by a lawyer for Mr. Sterling's family. "We're confident that it won't be swept under the rug,' said the lawyer, Edmond Jordan, who is also a state representative. 'I think people are confident that justice will be pursued.' Officials identified the two officers as Blane Salamoni, who has been with the Police Department for four years, and Howie Lake II, with three years' experience. Both have been placed on administrative leave." Assholes. Real justice will be zero people like these two on any police force anywhere, and zero Black people killed by police.

[CN: Sexual harassment] Welp: "Attorneys for former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson were contacted by 10 women in the wake of their lawsuit against the network's CEO, Roger Ailes, CNN's Brian Stelter reported on Wednesday afternoon." It's never just one woman. Never.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton gave an important speech in Atlantic City about what a jerk and a failure and a swindler Donald Trump is, in which she amplified the voices of the working people personally screwed by him. I really appreciate that she cares about these people and is listening to them and is telling their stories.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump gave another one of the arglebargle word salad monologues he calls a speech, which was a dreadful spectacle of incoherent nincompoopery, during which he called one of his sons onstage to talk briefly about how their family loves his dad, and then shooed off his son and returned to the podium where he screamed about how he doesn't like mosquitoes, killed a mosquito, then said, "Hey, Hillary, how you doing?" Honestly, it was possibly his worst speech yet, which, I don't need to tell you, is really saying something.

[CN: Misogyny; sexual objectification] Fucking WHAT: "If elected president, GOP candidate Donald Trump may keep his cabinet 'all in the family,' so to speak, with his son Eric Trump vouching for sister Ivanka as vice president on Thursday, according to Politico. The Trump scion appeared on Thursday morning's edition of Fox & Friends, telling host Steve Doocy, 'She's got the beautiful looks, right? She's got—she's smart, she's smart, smart, smart. …She's certainly got my vote.' Donald Trump has been mocked for raving about his daughter's beauty and even saying he would date her if they weren't related." This is one fucked-up family.

Bernie Sanders says he might finally endorse Hillary Clinton. Bernie who now?

And Rep. Darrell Issa, never in the news for anything but being a total dipshit, says he's so angry that Clinton wasn't indicted he wants to shut down the federal government over the situation. Sounds reasonable.

[CN: Homophobic slur; racism] Breathtakingly awful: "A Republican candidate for Senate riled his opponent and others on social media over the weekend by employing a term long used as a slur for gay men to demean one of Donald Trump's interlocutors from more than two decades ago. 'DONALD TRUMP. Putting self-righteous faggots in their place since 1993. How I love this fellow,' Ted Busiek, a 30-year-old Littleton resident, posted to Twitter on Saturday. ...Busiek told the News Service he didn't intend the term in a 'hateful sense' or to imply that the congressman was gay, using the word instead to mean the congressman was 'obnoxious' and was 'kind of being a jerk.' The full-time candidate who served four years in the U.S. Air Force said so-called 'social justice warriors' would 'probably have a heart attack' listening to him and his friends talk, though he said it would be 'very unlikely' that he would use such terminology publicly if elected to the state Senate." Fuck. Off.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] In better news: "Marvel's New Iron Man Is a Black Woman: There's a new Iron Man. Well, Iron Man for now. She's still working on the name. The events at the end of the comic book event series Civil War II will result in Tony Stark stepping out of the Iron Man suit and a new character, Riri Williams, taking over, Marvel tells TIME." I don't really like the Iron Man series, but this is very cool! And I hope Iron Man fans are excited about it! And that it's done well!

Sure, why not: "The Office of Naval Research has given Washington University in St. Louis associate biomedical engineering professor Baranidharan Raman and his team a $750,000, three-year grant to continue his research into turning ordinary locusts into military tools. The idea is simple, even if the execution is not. Like most insects, locusts are equipped with an exponentially more powerful and sensitive olfactory system than anything humans can artificially replicate—so why not use this preexisting system to hunt for bombs, rather than attempting to create what will inevitably be a pale imitation?"

And finally! "This Husky Raised by Cats Didn't Know How to Dog." LOL!

GOOD GRIEF THIS CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

So, all day, FBI Director James Comey has been testifying on Capitol Hill in front of a House Committee, the Republican members of whom are relentlessly grilling him on why charges were not brought or recommended against Hillary Clinton because of her emails.

It has been an obscene spectacle. I've written about a few of the early highlights of the testimony for BNR, including some video with transcripts: "Grilling of Comey on Emails Even More Humiliating for GOP Than Benghazi Hearing." Here's an excerpt:

If Republicans were really in pursuit of justice, if they actually cared about the facts in this case and not just about yet another in a decades-long string of partisan attacks on Hillary Clinton, none of which have yielded any evidence of wrongdoing (beyond "carelessness"), this charade would have ended the moment Comey delivered this bit of testimony, his voice rising:

No reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. No reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in a hundred years focused on gross negligence.

And so I know that's been a source of some confusion for folks, but that's just the way it is. I know the Department of Justice; I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. I know a lot of my former friends are out there saying they would; I wonder where they were for the last forty years, because I'd like to see the cases they brought on gross negligence. Nobody would; nobody did.

So my judgment was: The appropriate resolution of this case was not with a criminal prosecution. As I said, folks can disagree about that, but I hope they know that view – not just my view, but of my team – was honestly held, fairly investigated, and communicated with unusual transparency, because we know folks care about it.
This is not about justice. This is theater, with the singular purpose of trying to discredit Hillary Clinton, who has long been a target of Republican ire – and for whom their resentment has only grown as she's emerged unscathed from their ill-conceived investigations over and over, and now sits on the precipice of becoming the nation's first woman president.

They haven't been able to stop her, and it's all they've ever wanted to do. So they keep trying. They will keep trying themselves right into disgrace and defeat. As always.

There is much more at the link.

Including my feeling about watching a bunch of Republican Congressmen talk about whether Hillary Clinton will be "disciplined."

Flames. FLAMES.

Particularly as they are doing it under the pretense of their faux outrage that she will face no "discipline," despite the fact that this public tableau of protracted shaming is far worse than any formal professional reprimand ever could be.

This is not about justice. It is about harming a woman they don't like.

UPDATE: [CN: Racism; classism] And, naturally, any public spectacle wouldn't be complete without some racist dog whistling. JFC.